Alert clients. Besides telling customers when you’ll be away, be clear about how you plan to handle pending projects or orders. “I’ve been mentioning my trip on social media and in direct communication regularly so that none of my clients would be surprised,” says Gentile.

Avoid new projects. When you run your own shop, starting new projects is practically a reflex—but you have to rein in those get-work instincts in order to prioritize crucial loose ends before you leave. Make a to-do list (Gentile recommends Zendone), so you can stay focused.

Automate basic operations. You might be offline, but people still need to access company info, pricing, and so on. Gentile suggests setting up a Dropbox for your press kit, and sending the link to your press contacts. For auto-responder emails, Gentile uses MailChimp, or if an employee is handling basic replies you might want to use Canned Responses in Gmail. Be sure to include links to your FAQ, pricing, about page, mailing list sign-up, shop, or anything else that will be helpful.